Sony UBP-X700 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[Galactus123]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I’ve never seen a DV presentation provide a “staggering” improvement over the base layer in terms of the grade, but it’s still worth doing if only to improve the quite horrendous compression on certain titles.

I feel that the streaming version (Dolby Vision) of Batman 1989 looks better than the HDR10 disc. At least on my TV settings.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by blueman_Richie

Geoff, you've got this particular player (Sony X700), right? Would you recommend it as a solid purchase? I'm assuming you went for multiregion?

No sir I do not. I have the Sony X800 (original non Dobly version). Thought about trying an X700 out but it seems a bit flimsy. Panasonic 820 is still the best player on the market in terms of what you get for your money, though that itself is not perfick.

[rroeder]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

No sir I do not. I have the Sony X800 (original non Dobly version). Thought about trying an X700 out but it seems a bit flimsy. Panasonic 820 is still the best player on the market in terms of what you get for your money, though that itself is not perfick.

I was thinking about replacing my X700 mostly cause it doesn't want to play one particular scene correctly on the LOTR movies, 2 sets same scene. Anyway I was looking a the newer 800 model that does DV and the 820, do you think the 820 is worth the extra cash? Man I would hate to spend 500 bones on a new player and have issues with it! What are the issues your alluding to??

Thx

[HeavyHitter]

General question: is Sony still doing firmware updates for their UHD BD players?

[Nosferatu31]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

General question: is Sony still doing firmware updates for their UHD BD players?

I just got an update on my UXB700 the other night. I've had it for 2 years now.

[Energy Crisis]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu31

I just got an update on my UXB700 the other night. I've had it for 2 years now.

Really? What's the version number? The only one listed on their support page is M43.R.0277 and that's old - from 3/26/19.

[jurid]

Originally Posted by PullBackCamera

... the rest of us are going to get a better - and more accurate - image with DV switched on the whole time. Absolutely stand by that. And I assume Sony stand by that too, given the implementation. Think of it like upconverting 1080P to 4K. With SDR content, yes, the Sony is remapping and interpolating the SDR data to fit the PQ curve, and increasing the max white (to approx 300 nits, if I had to make a guess), but it does a good job and the internal accuracy of the SDR grade is substantially maintained. And then, in return, exactly, yes, you get the Dolby Vision tone mapping, the handshake between the player and the TV...

Sony's implementation of Dolby Vision as an imbedded feature of the player is therefore very smart IMHO. ...having tested it on a variety of low-to-mid level TVs and projectors with a variety of settings, WOLED via X800m2 with the DV upconvert is the closest in feel to the DCP.

This is an interesting comment in another thread, where it was a bit off topic. [I understand the guy is a filmmaker]. I did play with DV conversion myself a little when I got my x700. I thought (or imagined) some BDs looked "better", if one could say that, with more "pop", so to say. However, with forced DV, 4K upscaling on x700 sucked badly (it was pretty bad on Sony's "upscaling" BD players, though somewhat better with non-forced DV on x700). I noticed that in 2001: A Space Odyssey, for example, one can see jaggies of red color in red helmets, or anywhere with red color for that matter. Turning 4K upscaling off (but keeping forced DV) improves things in terms of looks, but then for some reason x700 becomes weird and outputs in 1080/60p only [it is still HDR DV, though (!)]. And loses HDMI handshake when stopping the disc. But, anyway, effect of the forced DV is interesting, though not really accurate

[Geoff D]

Yeah, it’s simply not accurate to what SDR should be and is not a mere repurposing of SDR into an HDR 2020 container. By definition it’s not going to be accurate when you force one EOTF onto another, and that it can still have some surprisingly ‘good’ results is down to dumb ****ing luck, i.e. the gentler and less contrasty the SDR grade is then the more it can stand being forced into HDR. But most of the time forcing the PQ EOTF onto SDR looks horrible to my eyes, HLG is far better (if one must do such a thing). But if someone hates consumer 709 SDR and thinks it should be consigned to the dustbin of history, as Mr Clay does, then that’s another thing entirely.

[jurid]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Yeah, it’s simply not accurate to what SDR should be and is not a mere repurposing of SDR into an HDR 2020 container. By definition it’s not going to be accurate when you force one EOTF onto another, and that it can still have some surprisingly ‘good’ results is down to dumb ****ing luck, i.e. the gentler and less contrasty the SDR grade is then the more it can stand being forced into HDR. But most of the time forcing the PQ EOTF onto SDR looks horrible to my eyes, HLG is far better (if one must do such a thing). But if someone hates consumer 709 SDR and thinks it should be consigned to the dustbin of history, as Mr Clay does, then that’s another thing entirely.

There are several points in my post:
(1) more general one: putting SDR into HDR container. That we agree it not quite accurate, even though it could subjectively "improve" the picture. Not quite "dumb luck" again, as it works on many titles. Maybe not as good as Mr Clay suggests, and for a different reason, but still...
(2) more specific to this thread: Mr Clay is talking about an LG OLED panel and a DV capable Sony. The results may be different in other cases. [from your posts it looks like you have a Sony LCD and a non-DV Sony player, correct?]
(3) specific to this thread: Upconversion to 4K in Sonys is not great to start with (and was laughable in their BD players). However, under the forced DV conversion, it becomes terrible (reminds me of the "chroma bug" in early MPEG decoders). Disabling upconversion forces BD into 60fps (not good). And it breaks HDMI handshake (worse still).

[Geoff D]

I have an OPPO which can force DV, it looks just like it does when forcing HDR10 on SDR (which I can do manually through the TV): crap for 99% of the time. And compression artefacts that were once buried in the clipped highlights are now plainly visible too. If someone likes it for what it does elsewhere to the image then fine, but there are far too many compromises there for my liking.

[jurid]

It may work somewhat differently with OPPO (I have 205 in storage, will test it at some point in the future). From 203/205 FAQ :"As for the Dolby Vision setting for HDR, that is correct that all content will be converted to Dolby Vision and output as Dolby Vision. We do not have specific details on how it works because the SDK was provided to us by Dolby. Customers are reporting that Blu-ray content with a Dolby Vision conversion does look slightly better, while HDR content did not see much improvement."

[sapiendut]

It looks DIFFERENT, not necessarily better.

[jurid]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

It looks DIFFERENT, not necessarily better.

Smart

what if it looks better

[halloween5309]

is this a good player for bluray and dvd?

[Surge92]

Originally Posted by halloween5309

is this a good player for bluray and dvd?

I haven't played any DVDs on mine, but it's great for blu-rays.

[unberechenbar]

Originally Posted by halloween5309

is this a good player for bluray and dvd?

I've used it for Blu-rays and haven't had any issues.

[Geoff D]

Great for Blu-rays as long as you turn off the baked in noise reduction

[jurid]

Originally Posted by halloween5309

is this a good player for bluray and dvd?

Pretty good for both. However, cheaper Sony BD players (s6500 or s6700) are somewhat better for those formats and allow for finer playback control. Not sure what happened and why they downgraded BD and DVD playback on x700.
I suspect because it would be too expensive to implement those options for 4K HDR playback, and they didn't want for 4k control options look poorer than their BD/DVD counterparts. [if they did implement those options, that would be something similar to Panasonic's optimizer feature].

One thing to remember though, don't use 4k upscale on s6700/6500. Let TV handle it. x700 does 4k upscale better, though not great (Panasonic players would be better for that with BDs (Pana 420 or 820, for example), however, Panasonics don't play DVDs very well).

So, here you go, if you intend to play all three formats (4k, BD and DVD), x700 is a good compromise. If DVDs are less important, then get a Pana 420/820*. If 4k discs are not a priority, then get s6700 (around $90 on sale).

*) get 820 if you have a DV capable TV

[bleedandtrim]

I've had a problem the last few months with mine where the video feed will drop at random (length varies from a sometimes only a second to long enough for the TV to switch to an active signal elsewhere) and often emit a horrible loud beep, and it only happens when the player's output resolution is set to 4K. I've tried various different HDMI cables but the problem persists, any suggestions?
For reference, the audio is just going directly to our Samsung UE43TU7000KXXU 4K TV. Any help would be appreciated, keen to get back to watching some 4K movies sans jump-scare level bleeps!

[Ray Jackson]

Are your 4K discs noisier in this player than regular HD discs?

Because mine are and it’s pretty annoying.

…makes me want to use the non-4K disc instead.